The need for imaging and ranging in robotics has brought LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to the forefront of consumer technology¹. Among various approaches, time-of-flight ranging sets the benchmark for robust operation due to illumination with high-energy pulses and direct detection. Conversely, spectrally scanning using tunable lasers is an inertia-free solution that offers fast scanning. The realization of a time-of-flight LiDAR with fast spectral scanning has not been possible because of difficulty in creating pulsed tunable sources. We demonstrate a wavelength-scanned time-of-flight LiDAR that realizes single-shot imaging and inertia-free scanning in one dimension with a rate of 1 MHz using a single laser and a single detector. We report two implementations of this concept, the first with a gain-switched supercontinuum source at 1,550 nm, and the second with a frequency-domain mode-locked laser at 1,060 nm. We show foveated imaging with both approaches as a potential solution to the big data predicament in three-dimensional imaging.

机器人技术中对成像和测距的需求将LiDAR（光检测和测距）带到了消费者技术的最前沿¹。在各种方法中，由于采用高能脉冲进行照明和直接检测，因此飞行时间测距为稳健操作设定了基准。相反，使用可调谐激光器进行光谱扫描是一种无惯性的解决方案，可提供快速扫描。由于难以创建脉冲可调光源，因此无法通过快速频谱扫描实现飞行时间LiDAR。我们演示了一种波长扫描的飞行时间激光雷达，该激光雷达使用单个激光器和单个检测器，以1 MHz的速率在一维中实现单次成像和无惯性扫描。我们报告了此概念的两种实现，第一种实现是在1,550 nm处使用增益切换的超连续谱源，第二种实现是在1,060 nm处使用频域锁模激光器。